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Letter of Support for Prisoners On Strike! from Redwood Curtain CopWatch and PARC

December 17, 2010

To The Prisoners of the Georgia Department of Corrections

To Elaine Brown

To Concerned Coalition to Respect Prisoners’ Rights

To The Georgia Department of Corrections

To Governor Sonny Purdue

We write this letter in support of the Prisoners of the Georgia Department of Corrections who are on strike in protest of the conditions throughout the prison system. We are a collective community based in Humboldt County California, spread throughout greater California and networked with others throughout the United States and the world who work alongside multiple struggles for justice and against multiple forms oppression such as police abuse, poverty, mass incarceration and systemic racism.

We wish the strikers to know that we hear and support their demands for an end to slavery by providing a living wage for their labor. We hear their demands for an end to the cruel and unusual punishment taking place within the Georgia Department of Corrections. We Support the prisoners' rights to education, health, food, justice, and fair parole hearings so that they can be reunited with their families.

We applaud the organizing efforts of the prisoners, especially their ability to organize with other races, as racial apartheid among prisoners will only aid the prison system in controlling the conditions in which prisoners are forced to live.

We wish the Georgia Department of corrections to know that the prisoners' voices are not silenced. We demand amnesty for all prisoners involved in this action, and we join in the prisoners demands.

We do not believe that the prison system in the United States (or anywhere) is a solution to social problems such as crime, violence, drugs, or poverty. In fact, the prison industry worsens these problems while incarcerating people of color, the poor, youth, and political dissenters. We therefore support the action of the prisoners and view their legitimate claims to human dignity as part of a broader struggle against state violence and for humanity.

We wish to thank the prisoners for inspiring those of us on the outside whose hearts and actions are in solidarity with prisoners, the poor, the dispossessed, people of color, the houseless, and all oppressed groups who struggle for a better world.